Doig denies design

As reported here, earlier this year a lawsuit was filed in the US against Scottish artist Peter Doig by one Robert Fletcher, who claimed that Doig had given him a painting more than thirty years earlier, when he was known as Peter 'Doige'. Fletcher had filed the suit after Doig had refused to acknowledge the painting in question as his work.


Lawyers for Doig have now filed papers alleging that it is simply a case of mistaken identity. The National Post reports:

“The painting over which they have brought suit was not painted by Peter Doig,” one of the artist’s attorneys, Chicago lawyer Shuyash Agrawal, stated bluntly in an Aug. 28 submission to an Illinois district court. 

And in the same submission, Agrawal delivered a potentially devastating blow to Fletcher’s claims: “We have now found the person who actually painted the work at issue.” Doig’s lawyer identified an Alberta man named Peter Doige — who had died in February 2012 and was memorialized on the website of an Alberta labour union — as the work’s true artist.  

“A simple Google search for ‘Peter Doige’ revealed several Canadians with the first name of ‘Peter’ and a family name of ‘Doige,’” stated Agrawal. “Among these Google results was an ‘in memoriam’ listing on the website of the Alberta Regional Council of Carpenters and Allied Workers (ARC) regarding the passing of one of its members, Peter Doige in February 2012.” 

Furthermore, Doig's lawyers say that they have found Peter Doige's sister, Marilyn Doige Bovard, who has signed an affidavit stating that her brother was an artist and, more importantly, that he had served time at Thunder Bay Correctional Facilities, where Fletcher claimed to have met the artist of his painting.

Nevertheless, it seems that Fletcher is still convinced the work is by Peter Doig. His quest for the real truth continues, for now.

Source: National Post, 13 September 2013

Did Doig do it?

A claim has been filed in the US Federal Court against Scottish artist Peter Doig, Doig's art dealer and Doig's lawyers seeking a declaration attributing this painting to Doig.

 
The Plaintiff, Robert Fletcher, claims that this painting, that he owns, is an early Doig painting worth millions, but that Doig refuses to acknowledge it as his work.

The Complaint explains that Fletcher was a correctional officer at Thunder Bay Correctional Facilities in Ontario in the 1970s. At this time, an individual called Pete Doige became an inmate. Fletcher became friends with Pete Doige who then sold him the painting which he had painted in his art class at Thunder Bay.

The Courthouse News Service reports that it is also alleged that:

Fletcher claims he helped Doig apply for parole, and was assigned as his parole officer.

Fletcher helped Doig in his search for employment, and helped him to obtain employment through the Seafarers Union in Thunder Bay...

Fletcher also encouraged Doig to pursue his artistic talent, and accepted Doig's offer to sell the work to Fletcher for $100.

Since that day in or about 1976 and to the present, Fletcher has owned the work.  

He claims that "many years later, a friend staying with Fletcher commented on the work hanging in Fletcher's home, mentioned that it might be by Peter Doig, and began doing research on the artist and the painting, which was later continued by Bartlow [the Second Plaintiff] on Fletcher's behalf."  

But VeneKlasen, on behalf of Doig, denied that the painting was by Doig, and denied that Doig had ever been to Thunder Bay. 

Back in November 2012, a HuffPost article on the dispute noted that Fletcher just wanted to establish the truth. Seeing as he is now seeking punitive damages for interference with prospective economic advantage, it seems that he now has his eyes on a greater truth.

Read more here and here.

See some Doig paintings here.

Source: Courthouse News Service, 2 May 2013. Photo of painting by Peter Bartlow.